BOSTON HEIGHTS, OHIO -- Johanna Louise Kensy Tschugunov, formerly of Warren, Ohio, died on June 11, 2006, at her home in Boston Heights, after suffering a stroke in December of 2005. She was three weeks away from her 92nd birthday; born July 4, 1914, in Youngstown, Ohio.
Ms. Tschugunov was a graduate of Youngstown Rayon High School. She graduated from Hiram College in 1934 with college honors, earning her undergraduate degrees in biology and German. She received her master's degree in education from Ohio State University in 1944, after which she was nominated to life membership in Delta Pi Epsilon. She also attended Kent State University, New York University, and the University of Dayton to keep up to date in her field.
During the Depression, Ms. T was employed as a relief investigator for the Federal Emergency Relief Association. She later organized a project under the WPA for the repair of textbooks in the Youngstown Public Schools. After World War II, she corresponded with Kaneo Ohta, who was a director in the Japanese Ministry of Education when the country was rewriting its textbooks. At his request, she collected schoolbooks and books on parliamentary procedures for work on restructuring the Japanese education system.
Ms. T was a dedicated teacher for 35 years, two at Orwell and 33 at Warren G. Harding High School, where she developed a secretarial training program that related to the needs of local offices. She not only taught business skills, but met regularly with local employers to help place students in skill appropriate jobs. She enlisted the cooperation of local businesses in setting up the "Secretary for a Day Program." She was published in professional journals with regards to her teaching methods and goals. While at Harding High School, she was secretary of the Mollenkopf Education Fund that raised money locally to help two high school students from Kenya graduate from Harding High School and go on to college.
Ms. T was also recognized as a Jennings Scholar.
After her retirement in 1976, she traveled throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as Germany, Switzerland, Finland, "USSR," England, and Scotland. Ms. T was an avid reader of literature, current events, and history, always passionately continuing to learn and pursue knowledge. She was a communicator of the old school, maintaining detailed correspondence with family, friends, and former students in English and German. She also compiled an extensive "story" of her family history.
She is survived by her two daughters, Marina Munjal and her husband, Ramesh (grandchildren, Sunny, Anjuli, Alexander, and Natalia Munjal), of Kingsport, Tenn., and Eleanor Tschugunov and her husband, J. Martin Brandon (grandchildren, Joel and John Brandon), of Boston Heights, Ohio.
A "Celebration of Life memorial gathering" will take place on July 2, 2006, at Ms. T's home in Boston Heights. Please contact the family for details at mmunjal @ earthlink.net.
The family suggests that any donations in Ms. Tschugunov's memory be made to a scholarship fund, established to honor her commitment to education, at Hiram College (Hiram College "Louise Kensy Tschugunov Memorial Fund," P.O. Box 67, Hiram, Ohio 44234).
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